Today's society has adopted technology on a broad scale. This includes the adoption of personal hand held electronics for use in playing music, playing games, making phone calls, navigating the Internet, tracking your exact location, checking the weather, etc. These electronic devices have taken the form of iPods®, iPhones®, iPads®, OEM Cell Phones, Personal Data Assistants (PDA's), handheld GPS navigation devices, portable music players, and the like. All of these handheld portable devices are battery powered and require charging with an external charge/sync cable specific to the OEMs charging and interconnect requirements. Today's increased use of video streaming and GPS navigation on the latest smartphones have put a strain on battery capacity and uninterrupted device use. This battery demand has required the device user to charge their devices more frequently. However, to be able to charge the device, the user must possess the charge/sync cable. In addition, the cable must be compatible with the specific OEM requirements, such as USB micro, USB mini, Lightning®, JAE 30-pin, etc. All popular electronic devices such as those listed above use a charging/sync cable that has a common distal end connector, currently at the time of filing, this distal connector is the industry standard USB Type A 4-pin shrouded male/plug connector, however the scope of this invention covers any type or gender of OEM proprietary or industry standard distal connector. This invention solves the problem of the user not having a charging/sync cable on their person when needed to recharge the portable electronic device. In addition to always physically being attached to the device and always electrically connected to the device, the distal connector is dispensable up to 3 Ft or more from the device, allowing the portable electronic device to be used as designed during the charging/sync time duration. Once charged or the sync is complete, the user can quickly and conveniently manually recoil the cable back into its low profile storage position on the portable electronic device by radially spinning the spool assembly top clockwise with the users finger placed into one or more of the spool finger pockets. This invention performs this utility in the form of two protective case assembly halves either of which may house a coiled and spooled device compatible charge/sync cable, which can be dispensed from the case assembly and returned to the case assembly using only ones fingers.
Others have devised methods to address the need for more battery power as is referenced in U.S. Pat. No. 8,646,698 Chen et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 8,531,833 whereby a protective case is fitted with an external additional battery. While this does extend battery life and thus usage time, once that time has expired, the user must find the appropriate charge/sync cable and plug the distal connector into a power and/or data source. With no cable, there is no additional/recharge power, regardless of the battery presence in the case. With this invention, the user is never without a charge/sync cable physically and electrically connected to the portable electronic device, and the user is never without the ability to plug the distal connector into a USB Type A or equivalent power source receptacle. In other prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,978 Zoller, a means is provided to “coil” a charge/sync cable around a protruding spool feature coupled to the back of the device. While the patent covers the retraction of the spool back into the housing/case, the OEM end of the cable is not always connected/mated to the device, and the cable must be fully removed from the spool and manually connected to the portable electronic device before charging/sync. With the present invention, the charge/sync cable is always physically and electrically connected at the OEM connector end and is ready for use once the distal connector is dispensed and connected to a USB Type A or equivalent power source receptacle. U.S. Pat. No. 8,579,172 Monaco et al., provides several utilities in its case design such as drop protection, a belt clip, bottle opener, and earphone storage and dispensing, however it does not provide an integrated charge/sync cable.
While U.S. Pat. No. 7,297,001 Wu, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,595 Lo, is a transmission line wire winding device which is pulled at one end, it is not integrated into a protective portable electronic device case, nor does its fixed end constantly remain mated to the portable electronic device during the storage and use cycle. In addition, the present invention utilizes electrical contacts that are significantly different than those shown by Wu and Lo, and in the present invention, these contacts are applied in a manner that allows for the deflection of the contact beams within the thickness of the PCB to which they are soldered. U.S. Pat. No. 8,640,868 O'Dowd et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 8,634,887 Hu et al., show means of applying a protective case or cover to a portable device, however, the present invention utilizes different geometry to that shown in the above referenced patents to temporarily connect the 2 case halves together. More specifically, latch geometry was specifically designed in this invention that allows the two case assembly halves to be snapped together relatively easily, while remaining fairly difficult to disconnect, which provides case integrity and functionality during normal use and abuse of the portable electronic device, however allows easy de-attachment of the lower case assembly half to allow unrestricted device “docking” to 3rd party accessory devices. U.S. Pat. No. 8,365,887 Fischer, shows a manual earphone retraction apparatus, which is not a charge/sync cable, which could be incorporated into a portable electronic device case. The embodiment and claims therein show a retraction spool with one or more “spherical” depressions for the acceptance of one's finger to wind. The present invention incorporates a similar spool, however incorporates “conical” depressions, (not “spherical” depressions as depicted and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,365,887 Fischer, featuring steep side walls and flat depression bottoms which provide better finger retention in the case spool assembly during the radial winding operation. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,123,552 Hsu et al., a portable storage box is presented which is also similar to the present invention, however it is designed for external portable hard drives specifically. It also requires the device/portable hard drive to be permanently mounted to the case assembly and does not allow easy case assembly removal for device maintenance or device “docking”. In US Application 2013/0020425 Grassi et al., a protective case for electronic devices is proposed which incorporates storage for earphones and a charge/sync cable. However, Grassi requires the user to remove both ends of the charge/sync cable and earphone cables from the case and then plug both ends of the charge/sync cable or earphone cable into their respective device port locations for charging and/or sync, or headphone use to occur. The present invention provides a constant mating condition to the device regardless of the length of cable dispensed, while the case assembly is attached to the portable electronic device, and allows for cable dispensing to occur from the distal end only to connect the portable electronic device to the power/sync source. In addition, due to the always connected/mated nature of the case/connector in the present invention, the life of the OEM device integrated female connector is significantly extended by reducing the number of device/cable mates required for the lifespan of the device, and reducing the portable electronic device OEM connector to exposure of moisture and debris.